Many coaches know that it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season, let alone a fellow state-ranked team and neighboring program that knows you as well as anyone.
But Northville’s softball team was able to jump over that hurdle over the weekend, and now has its eyes on much bigger things.
For the third time this season, Northville — ranked No. 4 in Division 1 — beat No. 9 Salem, doing so 5-0 in a district semifinal on Saturday morning.
Northville went on to beat Canton in the district final, 14-0. The win over Salem came just over a week after Northville beat Salem in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship game, 6-0. In both games, Northville beat one of the state’s top pitchers, Salem senior Shannon McAuliffe (Murray State).
“We played some small ball to move some people up (on the bases),” Northville head coach Scott DeBoer said. “Unfortunately for them, there were a couple of errors, but we were in position and took advantage of it. We’re a deeper team. I feel that one through nine, we put a lot of pressure on pitchers.”
Northville rode the continued brilliance of senior pitcher Mary Gugala, who has signed with Wayne State.
Gugala added two more shutouts to her impressive resume this season and for her career. This season, Gugala is 29-2 with an ERA under 1.00.
DeBoer said Gugala has been “under the radar” her entire high school career, but has simply gotten the results.
“She’s just a winner,” DeBoer said. “Every big game that she’s been in, whether it’s the KLAA championship the last three years or whatever, she’s shut them down. She beat the No. 1 team in the state (Farmington Hills Mercy in a regional semifinal last year) and the No. 1 pitcher in Kaitlyn Pallozzi, now at Alabama. She went toe-to-toe with her. She went against Shannon and beat her three times.”
Now, Northville will try and do something it hasn’t been able to do in the last three years, which is advance past the regional round.
Following Northville’s upset of No. 1 Mercy in a regional semifinal, it fell to eventual state runner-up South Lyon in the regional final.
Northville will play Gibraltar Carlson in one regional semifinal Saturday at Temperance Bedford, and a regional final game against defending state champion Saline could be looming.
Northville played Saline a few weeks ago at the Saline Invite, losing 14-3.
“Last year, I think we left nine or 10 on base,” DeBoer said of the loss to South Lyon. “I know we left the bases loaded twice. The timing, we were just off. We were up on our front foot. I think the key takeaway here is that we probably have to do a better job of understanding all the different pitching options (from opponents) that could take place. It will be a huge challenge.”
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Northville softball blanks a familiar foe as postseason run ramps up
Reporting by Keith Dunlap, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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